


Just Be

by crescendi



Series: tulips-verse [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Quadrant Confusion, Vignette, bloodswap, i need to write a proper one shot jfc, red-caliginous vacillation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 15:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17831450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescendi/pseuds/crescendi
Summary: He’s in love with Sollux, in all the ways. All of them.





	Just Be

**Author's Note:**

> set during chapter 3 of tulips, but you don’t need to read it to understand

Karkat curls into himself, eyes squeezed shut. Blue tears leak out of the corners of it.

Sollux takes his hand. “Hey,” he says softly. “It’s—“ Well, it wasn’t okay. “I’m here,” he settles on.

Karkat turns his face away, hair falling across his cheek. “It doesn’t change the fact I’ve been fucking murdering trolls all my life,” he chokes out.

“It’s not your fault though.” They sound weak as soon as he says it, and the seadweller shifts on the pile. “I mean—you had to do it in order to survive. Otherwise, your mom would have killed you.” Too blunt. He’s not used to being pale with his ex-kismesis.

“That doesn’t fucking justify it, thought!”

Sollux paps him on the cheek, once. “Shoosh.”

He calms down, some, and leans into Sollux’s chest. Sollux clumsily rests his hands on Karkat’s shoulders in some semblance of a hug.

Sollux isn’t sure why he does it. Maybe he’s just used to kissing Karkat after sweeps of having him as a kismesis. Maybe it‘s how Karkat clings to him as if he’s the grounding point of the universe. Maybe it’s the way the light from the pink moon slants onto Karkat’s face.

Whatever reason it is, Sollux leans down and kisses Karkat. It’s not a kiss between moirails. But it’s not a caliginous kiss either. If anything, it’s red.

But Sollux already has a matesprit and he still loves her.

Oh, fuck. Is he cheating?

He breaks away from Karkat, and the cobaltblood opens his eyes, confusion splitting his face for a split second before realization dawns on him.

“Oh, fuck.”

Karkat keels backward, shaking his head. “I’m so fucking sorry Sollux,” he babbles on. “I know you and Aradia—shit, I shouldn’t—“

“It’s fine.” Sollux runs his hands through his hair. “It’s my fault, I started it.”

“So. Which quadrant?”

Which fucking quadrant. Question of the sweep.

“I don’t—“ Sollux’s face twists. “I mean, the papping worked for you, right? It worked for me, too.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it did. But the kiss worked too.”

“Yeah, it worked for me, too.”

“And—spades—“

“Sometimes I think I could still hate you.” Karkat flopped down on the pile, staring at the ceiling.

“Yeah, you’re still a hateful little man.” Sollux pulls his knees to chest.

“So...which works more?”

“I don’t know. All of them.”

Karkat groans. “That’s not how quadrants work, bitch.”

“Then tell me how they work.”

“You—you have four glands. Love, pity, hate, and irritation, which is where quadrants come from. A single troll stimulates one of them, and multiple trolls can stimulate the same one, and sometimes the gland they stimulate switches, but the same troll shouldn’t make multiple gland fire at the same time!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t worry about quadrants.”

“What do you mean, we shouldn’t worry about quadrants?”

“Maybe, for now, we can just...be.”

“Just be, huh?”

“Yeah.”

...

“That’s cheesy as shit, Ampora.”

“Hey!” Sollux gasps, scandalized. “How dare you presume I have emotions.”

Karkat laughs, a genuine laugh, and throws a pillow at Sollux’s head. “Asshole.” He sighs and sits up. “But I would like that.”

“To just be?”

“To just be.”


End file.
